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Deontay Wilder vs. Tyson Fury
Deontay Wilder vs. Tyson Fury was a professional boxing fight which took place on December 1, 2018, at the Staples Center in Los Angeles. Undefeated defending WBC heavyweight champion Deontay Wilder faced undefeated challenger and former heavyweight champion Tyson Fury. Background The potential match up between Wilder and Fury had been talked about and promoted for several years prior to the fight and the first encounter had taken place off camera at the Motorpoint Arena in Sheffield in April 2013, where Wilder knocked out Audley Harrison on the undercard of Amir Khan vs. Julio Diaz, with both Wilder and Fury promising each other a fight in the future. Wilder then made the third defence of his title in January 2016 against Artur Szpilka at the Barclays Center in New York, a fight in which Fury was in attendance. At the end of the fight after Wilder had knocked out Szpilka in devastating fashion, in an attempt to build a future fight, Fury jumped into the ring and there was a face to face confrontation between the two men, this time in front of the onlooking crowd and a live television audience exchanging words with one another. After their heated discussion in New York, a fight between the two had seemed inevitable in the near future. However, the coming months saw Fury postpone the Klitschko rematch twice, firstly due to an ankle injury in June which saw the rematch put back from 9 July to 29 October before Fury cancelled a second time in September after being declared medically unfit following a positive test for cocaine. This led to Fury vacating his remaining titles in October 2016 and further problems with depression, alcohol and excessive weight gain followed with Fury announcing his retirement from the sport only to change his mind on more than one occasion. Fury eventually regained his boxing license and was cleared to fight again in December 2017 and began training for his comeback around the same time. Fury made his return to action on 9 June after a two and a half year hiatus since his win over Klitschko, stopping Sefer Seferi in four rounds. On 27 June 2018, Fury gave Wilder a message in an Instagram video saying, "I'll apologise on behalf of Eddie Hearn and Anthony Joshua because they're from the same country as I am, they won't fight you and they've took three months stringing you and the fans along with no intention of fighting, but I'll fight you in three seconds. Get your boss to send me the contract and I'll show you how long it takes to sign it! If you wanna fight the best this country has ever had knock on my door and see if the Gypsy King doesn't answer! The ball is in your court." Around this time, Fury and Wilder personally discussed a potential fight privately, and their two teams began talks for a fight to take place before the end of the year. Fight card *Heavyweight bout: Deontay Wilder © vs. Tyson Fury ended by a split decision draw in Round 12 Note 1 *Light middleweight bout: Jarret Hurd © defeated Jason Welborn by knockout in Round 4 (1:06) Note 2 *Heavyweight bout: Luis Ortiz defeated Travis Kauffman by technical knockout in Round 10 *Heavyweight bout: Joe Joyce defeated Joe Hanks by knockout in Round 1 (0:32) *Strawweight bout: Carlos Licona defeated Mark Anthony Barriga by split decision in Round 12 Note 3 *Super featherweight bout: Isaac Lowe defeated Lucas Rafael Baez by technical knockout in Round 5 *Heavyweight bout: Chris Arreola defeated Maurenzo Smith ended by referee technical decision in Round 6 *Middleweight bout: Julian Williams defeated Francisco Javier Castro by technical knockout in Round 2 *Welterweight bout: Robert Guerrero defeated Adam Mate by technical knockout in Round 2 **^Note 1 For the WBC Heavyweight title. **^Note 2 For the IBF WBA (Super) and IBO light middleweight titles. **^Note 3 For vacant IBF mini flyweight title. Category:2018 in boxing Category:Boxing matches